Dragonfly Thank You card by Chris W

If you've got to say thank you for all the Easter eggs and choccies you've been given over Easter then how about making a 'thank you' card? If you've not seen Karen Burniston's 'Pop n Cuts' dies then please take a look, it's a fabulous idea and you can achieve fabulous results in minutes. I've also used this cute dragonfly from the Sissix die and stamp set by Stephanie Barnard - it's in the sale at a snip!

Once you've bought the base tray in the 'Pop n Cuts' collection, which comes with the circle inner, you can add words or images to your pop up inside. There are additional shapes and cut out words such as this 'Thanks' one you can get to add to your collection. A really unique idea and a great set to own!

If you want the instructions on how it's made you can view, print and download them HERE.

Happy Easter all. 

Chris xxx

Recipe Book by Chris W

This is the last Easter post from me using the Easter die and stamp set. Even if you don't bother celebrating Easter this set is well worth having for the brilliantly useful egg dies as you will see!! This make is a little more difficult but still at an 'intermediate' level so nothing too hard.

If you don't have a basket die you can use a decorative oval instead.

Binding the pages with the Bind-it-all or the Cinch makes putting the pages together so easy. Simply wave a ribbon through the binding wires and tie at the top to add some interest.

Inside you can label and decorate the pages however you want to, to personalise to you or for someone else. Writing your recipes on a tag and slipping inside is a kewl way to keep them.

You could also change the orientation of the book if you so wish. Using it this way the book will stand up by itself.

Whether you shabby chic it, glam it, grunge or distress it, it makes a great little present. I know exactly who is getting mine and it's gone into the Christmas box already [g]. If you would like to view, download or print the instructions (with photo's) you can do so by clicking HERE.

Have a happy Easter everyone.

Chris xxx

Chocolate Easter Egg card by Chris W

Another very simple and quick card to make with the same Easter set of dies and stamps from Sizzix as before...

This time I've used the Damask border die by Jen Long-Philipsen. It's quite a large die (this is an 8" x 8" card) and a snip at £9.99. This card can be made in very little time with the most basic of skills so as long as you can turn the handle of a die cutting/embossing machine then you can make this card.

As well as making an egg from craft metal I've used a dark brown card to simulate a chocolate egg too. If you want to view, download or print the instructions you can do so by clicking HERE. Add any greeting you want to personalise it.

Have fun and thanks for visiting.

Chris xxx

Easter ATC by Chris W

Here's a simple little ATC you can make and trade with your ATC friends for Easter.

Using this lovely little Easter die and stamp set it literally took minutes to make. I also used an ATC die to cut the board it's made with. (The Tim Holtz ATC die with corners is in the sale at a snip of a price at £6.99!!!!!) Cover your ATC with paper then cut the chick, the eggs, the grass and the letters. Stamp a couple of chicks onto shrink plastic, colour and shrink with your heat gun. Speckle the eggs using glimmer mists or spray inks then colour the grass with Distress markers. Tuck one of the eggs behind the grass to the bottom left and  glue into place (portrait orientation). Add the other egg to the right and glue into place followed by he chick, centred. The two little 'shrunk' chicks can be placed over the grass to the left. Simply cut your letters using an alphabet die and highlight the letters with a white pen. Hey presto, you're done!

Hope you're having fun making your Easter goodies, please stop by again soon.

Chris xxx

'Which came first?' Easter card by Chris W

The quirky little chick and eggs Easter set of dies & stamps by Stephanie Barnard at Sizzix is very versatile and to prove it I'll be blogging a number of pieces using them on the run up to Easter. The first is this simple Easter card...

As well as using the Easter set, I've used the fabulous Sizzix Harvest Bucket (Originals) die. This has been retired now, which is a great shame, and it's in the sale at the ridiculous price of £4.99. There aren't many left so grab it whilst you can, it's been a firm favourite of mine for years!

The card itself is very easy to make so even the newest newbie can attempt it (click HERE to view, download or print the instructions). Using ink sprays or glimmer mists to 'speckle' the eggs is effective and it's just a case of layering them behind the bucket.

The cheeky little chick just finishes the card off. It definitely reminds me of the saying "What came first, the chicken or the egg", lol.

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to comment if you have the time.

Chris xxx

One of a kind by Gabrielle

I know that many of you will have started to buy the rather lovely Distress Paints but might not always know how to use them. There are lots of ways they can be used and I thought I might share one of them! This might be a bit picture heavy!

I started by die cutting a Postage Stamp and Bottle Cap and a giant tag shape from kraft card.

Then I put some Picket Fence Distress Paint on my craft mat and sprayed a few squirts of water over the top. I then dabbed the tag into the paint adding more paint to my craft mat as needed. I then dried the tag and then repeated the process a couple more times. I wasn’t trying to achieve total coverage.

I then added a final layer of Spun Sugar Distress Paint and in doing so picked up a little blue ink from my craft mat. I never really mind about that as it adds to the layers!

To complete the background I added a harlequin pattern by first dabbing Seedless Preserves Distress Paint through the Dylusions stencil with Cut-N-Dry Foam - crossing your fingers is not compulsory! I don't know why I cross my fingers when I do this but I do! Perhaps I'm hoping that it works!

I then added Victorian Velvet Distress Paint over the top of the Seedless Preserves by moving the mask just slightly to the right. I then dried the tag and then sanded it until it looked ‘shabby’ and then I added Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges.

For the Postage Stamp and Bottle Cap die cuts I repeated the process with just the Picket Fence Distress Paint and sanded them. I also decided to add a sentiment and repeated the process with a further piece of kraft card. I stamped the images on to the Postage Stamp and on to white card. I cut out the images on the white card and coloured with Distress Markers (Victorian Velvet, Mustard Seed and Brushed Corduroy) before adhering to the Postage Stamp. The little dress form was made the same way but the ‘skirt’ was cut from packaging that the dies came in!

To complete the tag I die cut another Postage Stamp from the new Paper Collage Mini Stack papers and tied a button to some twine. To jazz up the button a little I added Picket Fence Distress Paint to it and then wiped off the excess. To keep it to the theme of the tag I dabbed a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the top when it was dry.

I hope this might inspire you to use your new paints - and you could always upload your creations to the all new Country View Crafts Challenge blog where the inaugural challenge is ‘Pick and Mix’ or anything goes!

Filigree Floral Card by Chris W

It’s amazing what a die cut can do, what a difference it can make to your cards and scrapbook pages. Here is a simple card utilising the beautiful Decorative Border die from Jen Long-Philipsen at Sizzix.

Take an 8” x 8”//23cm x 23cm scallop edged square card blank, 2 pieces of coordinated backing papers, a 12” x 12”//30cm x 30cm sheet of matching coloured card, 2 medium-large flowers and your decorative border die and that’s all you need (plus your craft toolkit, of course).

Cut a square of coloured card 7 ½” x 7 ½”//19cm x 19cm and a rectangle sized 3 ½” x 6 ⅞”//9cm x 17.5cm. Next cut your main backing paper 7 ¼” x 7 ¼”//18.5cm x 18.5cm and the contrasting paper to 3 ⅜” x 6 ¾”//8.5cm x 17cm. Cut your filigree border from the card and then just the centre circle from the die from a scrap of white card. Stamp a greeting into the centre white card. Mount your backing papers onto their relevant card bases and then the rectangular card vertically to the right-hand side of the main base. Stick the now completed base to the front of the card blank.

Take your filigree decorative border and glue it, centred, so that the top aligns half way down the card. Glue the white, stamped middle into the centre and add the flowers above it to the right. I’ve added some Crystal Ice Stickles around the petals of the flowers but that’s optional. Add an insert of your choosing and it’s ready to write and send. It’s another quick card for your fund-raising box.

Thanks for visiting, hope to see you soon.

Chris xxx

Mother Love by Chris W

With Mothers’ Day on Sunday a special piece of art for Mums seems apt. This piece is made using a cheap 5” x 7” ‘photo frame (£4.50, TU at Sainsburys) some alcohol inks, glassine paper, some general stamps, a few treasures, buttons and the beautiful flowers using the Daisies Framelits with stamps set from Sizzix.

The flowers are made simply by using the stamps then the dies to cut them out. Edged with Crystal Ice Stickles and centred with buttons or microbeads, how simple do they get? You’ll see on the larger flower that the size lent itself to me really curling the petals to make more of a feature.

I have some pseudo scrabble pieces in my treasures but they could easily be stamped or printed letters you’ve cut out or metal letters like the Idea-ology Muse Tokens or irresistible Type Charms, whatever you have in your cupboard. The nibs are also available as part of the Idea-ology collection.

The ‘love’ embellishment was made by simply cutting a heart from greyboard and adding a wire word but if you’re looking at them and thinking “I don’t have either” then once again you can improvise. Cut a heart from ordinary card and lift it a little by using decoupage foam pads and replace the wire word with a printed, punched or stamped word.

I love the technique I’ve used to ink the frame, it really doesn’t matter what colour set you use the gold really makes it zing. If you normally shy away from anything non-vintage looking then take another look. This piece demonstrates that you can make the most contemporary stamps and dies into something vintage looking if you want to and they can be as great on altered art as on greeting cards.

Have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have the time. Chris xx

Gilded Frame by Chris W

For some reason if I’m given a topic or challenge I seem to end up creating three things, lol. This gilded frame has to be the easiest and simplest to do of all! A frame (bought or made), gilding flakes, glue, a corner die and long enough for the gilding flakes to cure and you’re done. This is so easy that the kids could make it for you!

If you haven’t invested in some gilding flakes or metal leaf for your tool chest then I would really recommend some.
Materials:
1 card photo’ frame (purchased or made yourself)
Mirriboard to match gilding flakes
Variegated gilding flakes (or metallic leaf sheets)
Gilding glue (eg Flitter glu or equivalent)
Claudine Hellmuth Studio matte glue
Double sided sticky tape
Tools:
Spellbinder’s Shapabilities D-Lites ‘Garden weave’ die
Spellbinder’s die cutting machine (or equivalent)
Cutting mat
Inking sheet
Decorative metal embossing wheel or a thin embossing tool
Scissors
Scalpel or craft knife
Clean dish washing sponge (hard one side, soft the other)
A dry rag
Method:
Prep the frame:
Follow the instructions that came with your gilding flakes/leaves to apply the glue and metal and leave to cure. When ready use the rough side of the dish washing sponge to remove the excess flakes/leaf from the frame. Remove all debris using the smooth side of the sponge and buff with a soft tissue.
Prep the corners:
Cut four corners from your mirriboard. I’ve left mine plain but you might want to embellish yours with flowers or gems so prepare anything further you want to add but don’t stick them to the corners yet.
Bringing it all together:
Glue your corners onto the frame and wait until dry before adding any further decoration (such as flowers, gems or bling). Your simple, quick frame is now done.